From: Bas van Gils <bas@...>
Date: 2007-06-12T15:33:32+09:00
Subject: Re: a matter of style


Hi all

Robert (and also Anthony), thanks for your comments! 

On Tue, Jun 12, 2007 at 03:58:21AM +0900, Robert Dober wrote:
> (*) Card = Struct.new( :suit, :face ) would be sufficent

Right, I wasn't aware of the Struct concept. So there's a first lesson ;)

> (*) Ruby allows for much shorter code, look e.g at
> def getCard
>    if @cards.size == 0
>      raise "No more cards in the deck"
>    end
>    return @cards.slice!(0)
>  end
> which I would write as
>  def getCard;
>     @cards.shift or raise SomeNiceErrorClass, "No more cards in the deck"
>  end

That's definitely shorter and more readable... I guess I'll learn to code this
way once I get to know the API better.

> (*) Personally I think it is nice to name CardSet#shuffle! with the
> "!". However more learned members of the community think that the
> existance of X#member! implies
> X#member and X#member  is to be defined as
> 
> def member; x = dup; x.member!; x end
> 
> Just to let you know, I am with you but we are pretty alone ;)

Well, it is easy to just add this method if that is to be common Ruby style.

Yesterday I read part of Why's poignant guide to Ruby. I noticed that 
:symbol's are used frequently.. is that also typical Ruby? I˙e. write

  @someHash = { :foo => "bar" }

rather than

  @someHash = { "foo" => "bar" }

is so, is (memory)efficiency the main reason?

Cheers

  Bas

-- 
Bas van Gils <bas@van-gils.org>, http://www.van-gils.org
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